


Savages

by Shae_la_Hyene



Series: Disney but make it Lamen [1]
Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat, Pocahontas (Disney 1995)
Genre: Angst, Day 7 : ANGST, Hurt, Lamen Week, M/M, first in the "disney but make it lamen" serie, oh god..., the Pocahontas AU that surprisingly people asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:42:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24963211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shae_la_Hyene/pseuds/Shae_la_Hyene
Summary: Lamen week day 7 : ANGSTPocahontas AU :Laurent's life was easy, free of attach. He lived carried by currents, traveling through all the New Worlds trying to find the perfect one. He hadn't had a home since his brother died. He didn't need one.Damen had everything he could desire. He was the pride of his father, and had a brother he loved, a bright future laid in front of him. But in his ear, the wind whispered there was something bigger incoming.
Relationships: Damen & Kastor (Captive Prince), Damen & Nikandros (Captive Prince), Damen & Theomedes (Captive Prince), Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince), Laurent & Nicaise (Captive Prince)
Series: Disney but make it Lamen [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948699
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13
Collections: Lamen Week 2020





	Savages

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't sleep so technically it's still saturday for me.  
> Be nice. I basically wrote it in less than two days.

Laurent was excited. He was always excited before a long journey.  
Maybe his excitement for new places faded with time. Everywhere the places were the same, as the people.  
But he was meant to be at sea, on unsteady wood carried by the wind. No attach, no regrets, just a wide look to the future and what was to come.  
This specific journey would have probably been better if he didn’t carry in his ship his inconvenient uncle there for politics and gold and power, but because of him the Crown was funding the expedition. He would just have to ignore him, and forget about his presence.  
He had gotten better at that those past few years. Being on the ocean was freeing, and he had let go of the past and of his uncle’s influence on him between the waves.  
Most of the crew was made from Laurent’s own men, and he felt safe with them, he had learned to trust them with the years together.  
A few additions, for their ship was meant to start a colony, and a part of the crew would stay behind as the ship went back to build it, and seek for gold. Laurent didn’t care for gold. If it wasn’t necessary to keep him at sea, he wouldn’t want it.  
But the Old World was hungry for gold. They weren’t going to the New one for adventure or experiences. They were going for gold.  
Most of the sailors were leaving their families behind. Future and wives, children, everything, in return for the dream of a better life. It was a foolish dream, no one really made it to that life.  
Laurent wasn’t leaving anyone behind. There hasn’t been anyone left for years now. Even Nicaise came on this trip with them. With his uncle. Nicaise was seeking there the same freedom Laurent had been pursuing at first. But he had always been poor, and so he was seeking gold too. There was no freedom for the poor, and he was the living proof of it.  
Maybe he also knew his time at his uncle’s arm was coming to an end, and maybe he realized he had to find other ways to be useful, or maybe to support himself alone. He was not wrong…  
About a week in, during a wicked storm, Nicaise fell off the ship while trying to secure the canons. Things like that happened, and for the rest of the crew, Nicaise was lost.  
None of them cared. So it was Laurent who tied a rope to his waist and went to rescue him. And sassed the hell out of his men who said they would have totally done the same for him. He never expected them too, he knew them too much. They were mercenaries, redempted pirates. They cared about their survival first. Laurent held them under his control because he was their best shot at survival most of the time, and that was all.  
It was necessary. In times of crisis, he needed a crew that would fight its hardest to survive. Nicaise was still a kid, still a weaker link in the chain. But he would get there too, Laurent promised himself that.  
As soon as the storm started calming down and he knew he wasn’t in immediate danger on the deck anymore, his uncle crawled out of his cabin the same way a rat would crawl out of the dirty hole it had been hiding in.  
Laurent rolled his eyes at his paternal speech, and pulled Nicaise away from him, under the pretense of fixing the cannons. He had heard enough of those poisonous words destined to make men stick together like a flock and follow his orders like sheep. They both had.  
Aimeric, though, didn’t seem to ever have enough of those saccharine words, and kept following his uncle like a pet dog, looking at him like he hung the moon. It made Laurent sick. But he couldn’t do much about it anyway.  
“I can’t wait to discover that new world,” said Nicaise excitedly, eliciting a smile from Laurent. “I will found a goldmine, become rich, build a big mansion. It’s the start of a new life ! If an indian tries to stop me, I will just destroy them !”  
Laurent chuckled, shaking his head.  
“Leave the savages to me, and keep your head to become rich, Nicaise. I can handle them and their troubles.”  
Nicaise frowned, ready to defend himself if it was an insult, but eventually ignored it.  
“What do you think this new world will look like, Laurent ?”  
“I have seen a lot of those new worlds,” Laurent answered with a sigh. “In the end, they’re always the same, nothing new. Why can this one have that the others don’t ?”

Damen was looking at the sea.  
Why, he couldn’t really explain why, but the wind was whispering to him that what his dream was about would come from there. Something extraordinary and wonderful.  
His mother could converse with the spirits of the earth, and transmitted it to him, her only child. She told him to listen, very closely, for the spirits had a lot to tell him.  
She was the first spirit he had conversed with, when he was very little. His father was proud, he wanted Damen to follow her lead and learn with the chaman, to be their people’s spiritual guide. And Damen would be proud to do it.  
The wind engulfed him from his vantage, giving him glimpse and flashes that he couldn’t yet understand. Part of the future, of the past, and today, of the present.  
About his father and brother.  
They had gone to battle, with the other warriors, to protect their people and defeat their enemies. They had left Damen behind, told him to take care of the tribe until their return.  
Damen had smiled at the trust and honor, and did it. And waited for them to return.  
“Damen !”  
The scream came from the water, far below him. Damen looked down to see his friend Nikandros in a canoe, his hands cupped around his mouth to be heard through the distance.  
“Your father came back ! Come, quick !”  
Damen grinned wide. The wind was right. His family had came back home.  
He turned to run back through the forest to return at the lake’s level, but then he changed his mind. He was too impatient to waste that time, and ran back where he was, before diving all the way to the water.  
“Don’t do…” he managed to hear Nik say during the fall.  
“You’re such a show off,” said Nikandros when he emerged back to the surface after having swam toward the canoe.  
Damen grinned again, and pushed the canoe until Nikandros fell in the water in surprise.  
“Damen we’re too old for those games !” he shouted, but he was laughing too.  
Damen splashed some water at him.  
“We’re not that old !” he said in mock offense.  
Still smiling, they turned the canoe back up, and climbed in.  
Nikandros shouted in protest when Damen shook his head to chase the water from his hair.  
“You bloody animal !” he grumbled. “What even were you doing up there ?”  
Damen shrugged. “Thinking.”  
“About that dream again, huh ?” Nik asked, curious. “Did you find out what it means ?”  
Damen shook his head.  
“Not yet. But there is a way to explain it, I just don’t know it.”  
Nikandros sat back on his feet.  
“Maybe you should ask your father…”  
“Maybe…” said Damen pensively.  
He loved his father, but he wasn’t sure he’d let Damen pursue a feverish dream.  
“Let’s go, they’re waiting for us,” he said finally.

His father was talking in front of everyone when they arrived, recounting the glorious battle they had just won.  
“No one had been as brave as my son Kastor,” Theomedes was saying in his deep commanding voice. “He had shown himself to be strong and brave as a bear. He inspires fear in whatever warrior crosses his path, and is worthy of our trust. Tonight, we will celebrate his strength !”  
Damen smiled, he was so proud of his brother. He knew how important it was for Kastor to live up to his duty as future leader of the tribe, and to their father’s expectations. He deserved the praise, Damen knew it.  
Then, his father caught sight of him, and smiled even wider, opening his arms in an invitation for Damen, who ran into it.  
“I missed you so much, father,” Damen said. “I’m so happy to see you safe and sound.”  
“Seeing you fills my heart with joy, my son,” Theomedes said.  
As the crowd dispersed, Theomedes placed his arm around Damen’s shoulders, pulling him toward his tent.  
“Come with me, I want to know everything that happened when I was away,” he said.  
As the flap closed behind them, Damen confessed :  
“Father, there is this dream visiting me every night, and I can’t figure it out exactly, but I think it means that something fantastic, and important, is soon to happen to me.”  
Theomedes smiled.  
“Your instinct is right, my son. Something important is going to happen.”  
“Really,” said Damen excitedly. “What ?”  
Theomedes looked at him softly.  
“You are coming of age, Damen, it is time for you to take a wife. And after that, the chaman expressed his desire to teach you his art, so you can walk on his path after him. It’s the greatest honor I could have dreamt of for you !”  
Damen’s smile fell.  
“Oh,” he said. “That is a great honor, father, but I don’t think that’s what my dream is predicting. It’s something different. Something bigger !”  
Theomedes sighed, and placed his hand heavily on Damen’s shoulder.  
“I was afraid you’d say that,” he said sadly. “Damen, you’re not a child anymore, and you are the son of the chief, my son. You have responsibilities, duties, toward our people. We are all counting on you. You can’t spend your life in dreams, you have to assume those duties. For me, for your people. That is what life is about. Take a wife, build a home, start a life with her, and learn. Soon you will become the link between the spirits and the men that your mother was meant to become. Don’t you want to make her proud ?”  
Moving toward a shelf, he pulled out a red feather, and place it in Damen’s hand.  
“This was the one used in our own alliance,” Theomedes said. “I know your mother would have wanted you to be united under it too. And I wish for that too. It’s time.”  
After this, Theomedes left the tent, leaving Damen to think about what he said.  
His father was right. It was time for him to stop being a boy, and become a man.  
Slowly, he tied the red feather to the leather lace around his neck, securing it surely not to lose it, and left the tent too.  
Rather than following his father in the commandment tent, he went back to the canoe.  
He jumped on one and started rowing. He needed time and space to think.  
And he wanted his mother’s advice.  
As he crossed the forest to reach her willow tree, he turned his father’s words in his head.  
Was it really what life, and being a man, was about ? Letting go of dreams and hopes ? How was he supposed to become the link between men and spirits if he stopped listening to what the stream was saying with its torrent ? Where was the lie ?  
He didn’t have much more answers as he landed by the roots of the willow.  
“My son,” his mother greeted him. “I was hoping you’d visit me today.”  
“Mother,” said Damen with a smile. “I need your advice…”  
His mother’s face appeared on the bark of the tree, and smiled back.  
“Oh !” she said as she eyed Damen’s necklace. “Is that our alliance’s feather ?”  
Damen nodded, taking it in his hand.  
“That’s why I am here for. Father wants me to take a wife, he said you’d want me to have it, and that it’s my destiny to follow your tracks by becoming chaman.”  
The bark moved as his mother frowned.  
“How could he know what I’d want ? I died a long time ago and he never came to see me !”  
Damen smiled at that.  
“He really should have,” he conceded. “But how could he really know what my destiny is ? Why wouldn’t it be the one from my dream instead ?”  
“A dream ?” his mother asked, surprised. “What dream ?”  
Damen shrugged.  
“It’s… vague,” he answered. “It happens every night. I walk down a path, and suddenly that path splits in two, and one of them lead to the village, I can see father, and Kastor there, but when I look down the other path I see it leads to the ocean, and in the sky are strange clouds. Something, a strange force, pushes me on the second path, but I don’t understand why.”  
His mother frowned again, thoughtful.  
“I don’t know what is down that path, but I think the spirits are trying to guide you there, they want you to choose that destiny, my child. You have to listen to the spirits, more closely, and trust them on where to go.”  
“But how can I know what to do, what to look for ?” pressed Damen.  
“Listen to the wind, Damen, ask him what it wants you to see.”  
Damen forced himself to calm down and open his mind, like his mother taught him, and closed his eyes. As his breathing slowed down, he started to hear the spirits again, a feable whisper he struggle to get a grip on. So he calmed himself more and let it flow away and come back, again and again, until he understood that he had to look to the sky.  
“It wants me to look for the clouds !” he said to his mother, but the bark was naked again, his mother was back asleep.  
With one last smile, he started climbing on the tree, reaching the canopee from where he could see the sky. And there they were, the clouds from his dream.  
Too opaque, too straight shaped to be natural. And going faster than the others, straight to the shore. Climbing down from the tree, he went to search from them from the ground.  
Before he left, he placed his hand on the bark, and closed his eyes to feel his mother’s presence. “I love you, mother,” he whispered.

“We are ready to land there, uncle, it’s deep enough by the shore,” said Laurent upon entering the cabin. “The crew is maneuvering already, we will be able to land completely within an hour.”  
“Very well, nephew” said his uncle, sipping his wine, in the same voice he’d say ‘good boy’ to a dog. “I am sure everything will be handled well from there. As soon as we land properly, I’ll make the official claim of the land. I’ll ask you to take care of the eventual… indigenous problems if they occur. We cannot let them get in the way of our mission. But maybe you’ll get lucky, and there won’t be any !”  
Laurent hated this smile, but ignored it. Even his uncle couldn’t spoil his good mood and excitement.  
“If they look like the ones I already faced, I won’t need luck, they won’t be a problem for long,” he answered confidently.  
“Alright,” said his uncle, and signaled with his hand. “You are dismissed, then.”  
Laurent left the cabin, and threw orders around the moment the door closed. He didn’t wanted to waste any more minute on that ship. He loved being at sea, but they hadn’t seen land in so long all of his limbs were buzzing with anticipation.  
The land looked like it had a rich soil, from the size and abundance of trees. Mountains and streams, it looked like a paradise to Laurent.  
Where everyone else saw gold, he saw a challenge, a world to conquer and tame and win. Somewhere to discover completely.  
As soon as their boat was lowered to the water, he jumped over the edge to climb down the scale to it.  
“A whole new world to conquer,” whispered Nicaise next to him. “I never saw that before.”  
“Then don’t stay on board, and come take it,” Laurent said, already half way.  
He was the first to put his foot on that new land, he always did. From the ones that got down to pull the ship closer to the shore. He was always the first to step in that unknown new world. But quickly the appeal of pulling on the rope faded and he started exploring the area. The trees blocked most of the view so in no time he was climbing on rocks, ignoring Nicaise’s offended calls, until he could have a good overview of where they had landed.  
“Shut up, Nicaise, and pull on that rope, I just need to see it from above !”  
It was even more magical from above. So rough and full of potential and beauty, Laurent felt like he was in love already. That would probably fade, but it was always a nice feeling, like the other times. By the time he got up on a high boulder, he could see most of the shore. That was when he heard a movement behind him. Instantly, he turned to face the threat, but only saw a big bush. The danger was probably hiding in there…

The clouds were not clouds, but some sort of white material attached to a giant thing of wood, and people came out of it. It was all very strange and very new. Exciting, but also a little scary, and Damen went closer and closer, keeping himself covered and hidden from them.  
They looked sick, pale, he had never saw anyone quite like that.  
As he was looking down at them from a boulder, one of the men climbed all the way to him, and he only had time to hide in a bush. When the man managed to hitch himself up to look all around him, Damen finally got to see him from up close.  
It was the most beautiful man he had ever see. His skin didn’t look sick, just very white. His hair was yellow, lighter than corn, and his body lean and muscular, hidden under layers and layers of clothing. As Damen moved a branch to look even more closely, another one snapped, and the sound alerted the man. For a second, Damen caught sight of his startingly blue eyes, before he back down to hide further in the bushes.  
It was to no end, the man noticed his presence. His only hope was that he saw something else as the source of the noise.  
Calming his mind almost forcefully, he called for a spirit, or anything, really, that could help him escape the inevitable discovery. As the man’s hand touched the leaves hiding Damen, a bird went out of the bushes next to him, and almost attacked the man, forcing him to back away.  
“Thank you, little friend,” thought Damen.  
There was a shout from the men on the shore, and a responding one from the man in front of him, before he left and climbed down to join the others. Damen was safe.

“Laurent come back ! The Governor is about to come out !”  
Laurent frowned. But no. It was just the bird.  
“Yeah, yeah I’m coming,” he shouted back at Nicaise.  
With one last look at the bushes, Laurent turned away and went back the way he climbed up.  
“I have the great honor to claim that land in the name of His Majesty the King of England. It will become the last jewel on his crown,” his uncle said pompously.  
Laurent almost snorted. Who was he trying to fool ? His uncle was there for his own gain and his own power. The crown of England was just a way to get there.  
After his little formal speech, the crew was authorized to disperse once again, and started unloading the ship under Laurent’s watchful eyes.  
“I seem to have picked the perfect spot,” the Governor gloated. “Not a savage on sight !”  
Maybe not for a pampered court diplomat. But not for someone like Laurent.  
“It’s not because we don’t see them that they’re not here,” he said simply.  
“Is that so ?” his uncle asked with a smile. “Well then I suppose you’ll have to take a team and discover if they’re here or not.”  
“If there are savages around here, I’ll find them,” assured Laurent.  
His uncle nodded, his head already elsewhere.  
“Alright, go then,” he said distraitly.  
Laurent could have felt insulted at the infantilizing tone, but that gave him the opportunity to get away from his uncle, and to go explore as he wanted to.  
“Everyone else, come here,” he heard his uncle shouting from a distance “to receive your next orders.”  
The rest was drowned by the distance as Laurent walked deep into the woods.  
After that, he spent most of his day exploring. That new world was probably the most beautiful he got to see so far. He loved it, what it had to offer, the challenge of every rock and every stream. He didn’t found anyone, but that research could take a long time.  
It was only as he went to drink by a waterfall that he realized he was followed. How long has it been ? His men wouldn’t do it. A savage then ?  
Pretending to move on with his exploration, he went to hide behind the curtain of the waterfall, waiting for his pursuer to show up, and readied his gun with his silex lighter.  
He just needed the savage to come near enough to shoot. He kept as silent as possible, and was finally rewarded by the sight of a massive dark silouhette on the other side of the water curtain. Think I didn’t saw you, huh ? Laurent thought.  
Laurent waited, until he was sure he would have the best angle and would be sure to kill the savage the moment he’d rush out of his hiding place. He blew on his wick one last time… and jumped through the waterfall.  
But the sight that welcomed him was one of a god. He found himself incapable of shooting. The man was too… majestic, and god-like. Tall, muscular, his skin darker than Laurent’s, and much more on display. He had deep black hair, and his warm brown eyes were fixated on Laurent’s.  
Going against everything he knew, Laurent found himself putting his gun down on the stone, and then walking slowly toward the stranger.  
The man looked a little scared of him, but looked down on him anyway. He was unarmed, forcing Laurent to yield with only his will. Laurent had never lost a battle of will before, yet he couldn’t find in himself to regret this one.  
As Laurent was knee deep in the water, his hand outstretched toward the stranger, he saw him run away. Fast, almost too fast for Laurent to catch up with him.  
“Wait !” Laurent called behind him. “Please, wait !”  
He caught up with him as he was jumping in the sort of little boats he has seen from indigenous before.  
“Wait,” Laurent said again, trying to keep his tone gentle and soothing. “I promise I won’t hurt you.”  
Again he outstretched his hand, waiting for the man to take it.  
The man spoke then, in a questioning voice. In a language Laurent didn’t speak. Laurent sighed.  
“You don’t understand a word of what I’m saying do you ?” he asked. “Come, please, I’m not going to hurt you.”  
The man clearly hesitated, looking at Laurent’s hand and then at his face. Laurent did his best to look unthreatening, knowing it was probably hopeless.  
Eventually, the stranger placed his hand in Laurent’s, and let himself be pulled on the land again. Laurent smiled softly.  
“What is your name ?” he asked, before remembering the stranger couldn’t understand.

When the man he had seen from up close went out on his own, leaving the other men on the shore, Damen felt torn in the desire to watch both. But eventually, he chose to follow the man alone. Something in him called out to Damen, and he wanted to know what.  
He didn’t seem to have a proper destination, he was just discovering Damen’s homeland, still far away from the village. Damen followed him from afar. A few times he thought he was going to get caught watching, but he didn’t. Until the waterfall, where the man stopped in his movements a moment too long, and Damen knew he had least suspected to be followed. He hid further behind the rocks in case the man looked around him, but by the time Damen moved to watch him again, he was gone.  
Damen went near the waterfall himself, trying to see where the stranger had disappeared to, when he heard him, only an instant before he saw him jumping through the water right at him.  
He was holding something, made of metal and wood, like a weapon. It most likely was.  
The tip of it was aimed at Damen, clearly threatening.  
So Damen stayed still, looking down into the stranger’s eyes. Now that he could really look at him, his beauty was even more striking, as was the ill intentions behind those icy blue eyes. Damen forced his breathing to calm down, to call for the spirits again, hoping for their help to escape.  
But no one answered, and the man didn’t attack. Instead, his eyes still on Damen’s, he kneeled on the stone, and put down his weapon.  
Damen watched as he started walking through the water toward him, until he was close enough to touch him. Knowing he had the advantage of speed, Damen ran, as fast as he could, toward where he left his canoe.  
The stranger was chasing him, calling for him with words he didn’t understand.  
When he caught up to him by the river, Damen hesitated.  
Something had called him in the other man. Something he couldn’t explain but was there. The man extended his hand toward Damen, whispering soothing words like Damen was a scared animal.  
“What do you want from me ?” asked Damen.  
The man looked defeated, and talked again.  
Hesitantly, Damen took that hand, and let himself be pulled on the river bend.  
The man talked again, and Damen somehow recognized the words.  
Calming his mind, he closed his eyes to listen to the world around him, just like he did for the spirits, and then the stranger’s words made sense.  
“Damianos,” he said simply.  
“What ?” said the other man in surprise.  
Damen smiled. “My name, it’s Damianos.”  
The stranger didn’t lose his surprised expression, but nodded once.  
“Mine is Laurent.”

“And what is that ?” Damen asked.  
Laurent chuckled as the other man took it from his hands.  
“A helmet, it’s to protect our heads.”  
“What a strange name,” Damen whispered, examining the metal.  
“Not as much as yours, Damianos,” said Laurent with a smile.  
“Damen,” he said after putting the helmet down. “You can call me Damen if you want, that’s how my family calls me.”  
“Damen,” repeated Laurent, liking the feeling of the word around his mouth.  
He extended his hand in front of him.  
“Nice to meet you, Damen,” he said playfully.  
Damen looked at the hand without a word, and Laurent realized he had never seen that.  
“You’re supposed to give me your hand,” he said with a laugh.  
Gently, he took Damen’s right arm and placed that hand in his. He squeeze it gently, then shook their hands together.  
“That’s how we say hello,” Laurent whispered.  
Damen’s face lighted up, and he shook their hands with more strength. When he pulled away, he placed his own at his heart’s level, his palm down, and traced a half circle with his forearm, before returning it to its original position, and extending in offering.  
“That is how we say hello,” Damen explained with a smile.  
Laurent felt himself smile even wider, helpless against the charm of Damen.  
“Tell me, did you always live here ?” he asked after a moment.  
Or are you just a god visiting us mere mortals ?  
Damen nodded. “Since I was born. Where are you from ?”  
Laurent pointed to the east.  
“From the other side of the ocean, I used to live in France but then we moved to London so that’s where I go back between the travels.”  
“London ?” said Damen. “It’s the name of your village ?”  
Laurent nodded. “An immense village.”  
Damen leaned down on his arms, and Laurent couldn’t look elsewhere.  
“What does it look like ?”  
“Well there are streets and hundreds of cabs, bridges, over the river, and buildings as big as trees,” Laurent tried to explain.  
“I wish I could see all those things,” Damen whispered as he struggled to imagine them.  
“You will,” said Laurent with certainty. “We’re going to bring them here, so we can show your people what we can do with this land, how to exploit it.”  
Damen frowned. “Exploit it ?”  
“Yes,” said Laurent, standing up. “We’ll make roads, and build real houses…”  
“Our houses are real, they’re more than good enough for us !” Damen said, angered.  
“Wait until you see ours !” Laurent said excitedly. “We are doing good for savages all over the world !”  
“Savages ?” growled Damen, standing up as well.  
“No, stop, don’t leave,” Laurent said, running after him. “I… I shouldn’t have said that, I didn’t mean you.”  
Damen looked down on him.  
“You only meant my people.”  
Laurent closed his eyes, trying to come up with a better explanation.  
“It was the wrong choice of words. Please, don’t go. It is just a word ! A word for those who are not civilized !”  
Damen made to leave again. “Like me.”  
“Like… those who are not yet civilized, meaning…”  
Damen stopped in his tracks, facing Laurent, and crossed his arms on his chest.  
“Meaning, different from you.”  
Laurent bit his lip, and didn’t answer.  
“You are quick to judge, for someone who make mistakes. Why would our way of life be the uncivilized one ? What makes me a savage ? What my house looks like ? There is so much you still have to learn, how could I be the one who need you ?”  
“I’m sorry,” whispered Laurent.  
With a sad smile, Damen took his hand, and lead them to a hill nearby, allowing them to look wide around them.  
“All you can see there is land, what you can take from it, what treasures it hides, how to use it. That is not what I see. I see my home, I see the lives there, the ones I can learn from, and that I have the duty to protect. Where you see dirt, I hear the spirits of the earth, of the wind and of the river. They are talking to me, and I can understand them, the same way I can understand you. This is just another place to explore, for you, isn’t it ? Something else to claim and own. But you can’t own the earth, it’s the earth who owns you. There is still so much you have to learn…”  
Laurent hadn’t let go of his hand, he held it tighter.  
“I know their secrets, their stories. If you took a moment to walk on the steps of those you call savages, you would understand that there is so much more than what you can see, more than the dirt you want to conquer. You still have so much left to learn…”  
Laurent walked closer to him, his eyes lost in Damen’s. Damen raised his other hand, and brushed a strand of hair away from Laurent’s face.  
“You just need to open up your mind,” he whispered, finally.

  
His eyes lowered to Laurent’s lips, attracting them almost against his. When he looked up again, Laurent’s eyes were lowered to Damen’s mouth too.  
Whatever could have happened then was interrupted by the sound of drums.  
Damen straighten up, his hands leaving Laurent’s skin.  
“What is is ?” Laurent asked, straightening too.  
“The drums, it’s a call from my village, some bad news. I have to go.”  
Laurent caught his hand again.  
“No, Damen, please,” he begged. “Stay.”  
Damen hesitated. He wanted to stay, there, with Laurent. But his people needed him.  
“I have to go,” he said again, and left.

So Laurent went back to the camp.  
They didn’t really miss him. A few asked if he met savages, he said no. They told him they had started digging for gold already, and Laurent shook his head silently.  
They should be more worried about starting a life here than losing it in soil. So he gathered all the authority he had on those men, and ordered them to work on fortifying the camp instead.  
After a few heated discussions with his uncle who couldn’t care less about where the men were supposed to sleep and more about them working day and night to dig up his gold, and some hard work of his own as an example, they managed to get a few days of work done to make the camp safer and more liveable.  
“Why this face, Laurent ?” mocked Nicaise one rainy day.  
“Just ignore him, kid,” Orlant said with a laugh. “He’s just pissed to have missed the brawl !”  
Nicaise slapped Laurent on the back.  
“Ah, don’t worry, you’ll be there for the next one,” he said cheerfully.  
“Yup,” said Orlant. “And we’ll get them just like last time. We killed one indian, maybe even ten or twenty more !”  
Laurent didn’t answer, but his chest felt heavier after that…  
Their task accomplished, Nicaise left to find another one. The older men, less enthusiastic, found it to be the perfect time for a nap, and as soon as no one was paying attention to him anymore, Laurent sneaked out of the camp, toward where Damen said his village was. He needed to see him again.

Damen was distracted. He had been since he had met Laurent. He couldn’t get him out of his head. He knew he couldn’t talk to anyone about it.  
“Stop mopping around, Damen,” Nikandros told him one day, when the sun appeared again after a storm. “Come with me, we’ll pick up corn for the warriors.”  
Damen nodded and followed, but his mind was still elsewhere.  
“Here you are,” came his father’s voice a couple hours later. “I was looking for you, Damen. You should go back to the village, straying off is dangerous now, and you both are not safe.”  
“It’s alright,” said Nik. “We’re gathering food for when the warriors come back.”  
Theomedes sighed.  
“Don’t go too far. I’ll ask Kastor to keep an eye on you,” he said before leaving them.  
As soon as he was out of earring, Nikandros groaned.  
“Alright, I’ve got enough of this !” he said, exasperated. “Tell me what’s going on, Damen.”  
Damen rolled his eyes.  
“There is nothing going on, Nikandros, you’re imagining things.”  
Nikandros came closer, taking Damen’s arm.  
“I’ve known you all my life,” Nikandros said softly. “You’ve never been a good liar. Just tell me, please. I’m worried about you…”  
Nik’s face transformed in fear as he saw something behind Damen.  
Turning on himself, Damen saw it was Laurent.  
“What are you doing here ?” he hissed.  
As Nikandros was about to cry for help, Damen placed a hand on his mouth, holding him tight in his arms.  
“I needed to see you again,” said Laurent with a wicked smile.  
Damen closed his eyes, trying to decide what to do. When he looked at Nikandros, he found him looking even more scared, so he released his grip slowly, looking straight into his eyes.  
“Don’t tell anyone, alright ? I’ll be back soon.”  
He stepped forward until he caught Laurent’s hand, and pulled him after him as he went to hide into the corn rows.  
“Where is Damen ?” he heard Kastor ask Nikandros.  
“I… haven’t seen him,” lied his friend. Not very convincingly, as Kastor sighed.  
“Tell him to be careful, it’s dangerous out there,” he said tiredly. “I know he listens to you.”  
Damen could almost hear Nik roll his eyes.  
After Kastor’s footsteps went distant again, he heard him groan.  
“Like he’s listening to me. He never listens to me…”  
When he turned his attention to Laurent again, Damen found him almost glued to his chest, smiling like a sun. He couldn’t help but smile back.  
“I’ve missed you,” Damen whispered. Then. “Come with me, I want to show you something.”

“This place is really amazing,” Laurent said, looking around him with wide eyes. “I can’t believe they all came here only looking for gold.”  
Damen frowned, looking at Laurent walking behind him.  
“Gold ? What is gold ?”  
“Gold is…” Laurent started, confused. Then he took a gold coin out of his pocket, and showed it to Damen. “That.”  
Damen examined it a moment.  
“No. That is not growing out here.” He threw the coin back to Laurent, who caught it with a laugh.  
“No gold ? Well my men will have quite a surprise !”  
Damen sat in front of his mother’s willow, waiting for Laurent to sit by his side.  
“Will they leave ?” he asked.  
Laurent shrugged. “They might.”  
Damen bit his lips. “Will you go back home ?”  
Laurent smiled, laying down on the ground.  
“Me that’s different. I don’t have a home, or I have a lot of them. I just haven’t fixed myself anywhere.”  
Damen crooked his neck to look at him in the eyes.  
“You’d want to have a home here ?” he asked quietly. After all, his father wanted him to build a home with someone. Laurent was the first person he wanted to do it with.  
Laurent looked like he didn’t know what to answer, and Damen was about to take it back when he heard the unmistakable sound of his mother awakening.  
Smiling, he turned toward the bark. Her face was appearing slowly.  
“What…” Laurent started.  
Damen smiled wider, looking at him suddenly.  
“You saw a spirit ?” he asked.  
Laurent shook his head.  
“No. No, of course not. It was just…” seeing Damen’s expression he hesitated. “Did I ?”  
“Look again,” Damen encouraged him.  
“Welcome, my child,” came the warm voice of his mother, and Damen watched Laurent’s eyes widen in surprise. “Who are you bringing here today ?”  
As Laurent stuttered next to him, Damen smiled to his mother.  
“You knew all along, didn’t you ?” he said simply.  
She smiled back. “I have listened to the wind for far longer than you, son.”  
“Laurent, this is my mother, mother, this is Laurent,” Damen introduced with a laugh.  
“How can… how can it be ?” Laurent asked.  
Damen shrugged.  
“She died giving birth to me. But in the last moments she came to be here and meld together with the willow tree. Her spirit had lived there since, even as her body is now feeding the earth.  
It took a lot of Laurent for him to swallow and accept that, it was clear. But eventually he nodded and said. “Nice to meet you.” In a shaky voice.  
Damen’s mother smiled.  
“He is pure of heart and soul,” she said. “And really pretty.”  
Laurent chuckled and grinned smugly.  
“I like her,” he said to Damen.  
“Laurent !” they heard shouted from afar. “Where are you, man ?”  
Quickly, Laurent pushed Damen against the tree, caging him with his arms, hiding them from his men.  
“I don’t like it, man,” Orlant said. “This place doesn’t feel natural. I feel eyes all over me.”  
“Don’t be ridiculous,” answered Jord. “Just focus on finding Laurent and bringing his ass back to the camp and everything will be alright.”  
“But what if we meet savages ?” Orlant asked, his fear audible in his voice.  
“Well if you do, don’t ask questions, just shoot, alright ?” Jord said in a gruff voice.  
Damen heard his mother’s call before he saw the results of it.  
The wind rushed in, the trees and water around them moving all at once, the animals getting distraught.  
It didn’t took very long for the men to run away, screaming.  
With a smile, Laurent pulled away from the tree, separating their bodies.  
“I should go before the whole crew comes here looking for me,” he said.  
Damen caught his hand.  
“Will I see you again ?” he asked, his voice vulnerable in a way it rarely was.  
Laurent held his hand tighter, between both of his.  
“Of course you will. Meet me tonight, right there,” he said with a soft smile.  
Raising their hands, he placed a gentle kiss into Damen’s palm, before turning away and leaving in the same direction as his men.  
Damen sighed.  
“I probably shouldn’t see him again, I just… really want to.”  
“It’s normal,” his mother said with a chuckle. “I want to see him again too.”  
“It just… feels right when I’m with him.”  
“Maybe that’s what your dream was trying to tell you,” his mother said.  
“You think that path leads to Laurent ?”  
She hummed in affirmation.  
“But it’s still yours to discover.”

Damen came back to the village in time to see the other tribe’s warriors arriving. He didn’t realize it would be so soon…  
Nikandros rushed at his side. “What do you think you’re doing Damen ? Are you crazy ?”  
But he was stopped from saying more by Kastor.  
A victorious grin on his face, his brother came to wrap his arm around Damen, pulling him in his embrace.  
“Look at that !” he said. “We’re enough now to destroy those white demons once for all !”  
In front of the crowd, their father was greeting the other chief.  
“Now that we are reunited with our brothers, we can defeat our enemies together !” he announced.  
Freeing himself from Kastor’s grip, Damen rushed to his father’s side.  
“Father, I need to talk to you,” he said, urgency in his voice.  
Theomedes waved him off.  
“Not now, Damen, the council has to gather to prepare,” he dismissed him.  
“We can still avoid that war,” Damen pleaded. “There must be a better path !”  
Theomedes shook his head. “Sometimes our paths are chosen for us.”  
“We should at least try to talk to those men !” Damen said.  
“They don’t want to talk,” his father answer, anger in his voice.  
“But if one did, you would listen to him, wouldn’t you ? Tell me, father, tell me you would.”  
Theomedes sighed, placing his hand on Damen’s neck in a comforting gesture.  
“Of course I would, but it’s not that simple. Nothing will be simple, from now on.”

As he walked back to the camp, Laurent surprised Nicaise, who pointed his gun at him.  
“Ho Nicaise, it’s just me !” he said with a laugh.  
“This is not funny,” Nicaise scolded him. “I could have killed you !”  
Laurent laughed again.  
“No, your aim is shit,” he said simply.  
Placing himself next to Nicaise, he moved his body to correct his posture, and made him look forward.  
“You need to open both eyes when you aim. You’ll see twice as good.”  
“Damnit Laurent !” Orlant shouted from the edge of the camp. “We’ve been looking for you for hours !”  
“Laurent,” called his uncle, crossing the distance between them with a quick pace. “Where were you ?”  
Laurent pointed vaguely backward.  
“Well, exploring the area, of course,” he said with assurance.  
His uncle smiled that wicked grin Laurent had learned to fear.  
“Excellent, so you must have found out where those savages are hiding ! That will be very useful for the battle !”  
Laurent was taken aback.  
“The battle ?” he asked, angry.  
“We will erase this little band of red skin once and for all,” continued his uncle.  
“No !” Laurent shouted. “You can’t do that !”  
“Oh ?” his uncle faked surprise. “Can’t I ?”  
“No,” said Laurent again. “We can still avoid that !”  
“Laurent, what’s the matter with you ?” asked Nicaise in surprise.  
Laurent stood straighter, looking as imposing as possible.  
“I met one of them.”  
“You did what ?” Orlant growled.  
“Those are savages !” Nicaise shouted, horrified.  
“Those are humans, just like us. They know that land, far better than we do. They know how to cultivate it, how to navigate on rivers ! They have more food that we could hope to grow…”  
“They don’t want to feed us, you idiots,” interrupted the Governor, “they want to kill us ! To the last of us. They have the gold. They found it, and they don’t want us to have it ! Fine ! We’ll have to take it by force !”  
“That’s false,” Laurent said, keeping his voice strong and steady. “There is no gold !”  
“No… gold ?” Jord said behind him, shocked.  
“I suppose it’s your little indian friend who told you that,” the Governor said with another smile.  
“Yes,” answered Laurent.  
“Lies ! All of it ! Thieves, murderers, they have no place in a civilized society !”  
“But this is their land !” shouted Laurent.  
“It’s my land !” said his uncle. “I represent the justice, and I say that every man who meets an indian without killing it instantly, will be tried for treason, and hanged !”

That night, Damen left his tent at night, and tried to leave the village discreetly.  
Nikandros didn’t let that happen.  
“Damianos, stop,” he said firmly, making Damen stumble in his track.  
“Don’t go there,” he continued. “I already lied for you, don’t ask me that again.”  
Damen shook his head. “I have to go.”  
“He is one of them !” said Nikandros.  
“You don’t even know him…”  
“You are betraying us. You prefer that man to your own people ! How can you do that ?”  
“I’m trying to help our people,” pleaded Damen.  
Nikandros sighed, taking Damen’s hand in his own.  
“Damen, please, you’re my best friend, I don’t want you to be hurt…”  
“Don’t worry,” said Damen firmly. “I know exactly what I’m doing.”  
“Do you, really ?” asked Nikandros finally.  
Damen dropped his hand. “I have to go.”

Not far from there, Laurent was doing the same, knowing that by doing so he was committing treason.  
Around the fire, his men were discussing whether the indians had that imaginary gold or not. Apparently, the fact that they fought back was a clear sign that they had it…  
Laurent knew he couldn’t convince them to stop. Not in a night, not while fighting against his uncle. That battle was already lost.  
Slipping between panels, he made sure no one saw him, and ran into the night.  
“Follow him,” said the Governor. Nicaise hadn’t even heard him behind him. “He must be going somewhere, I want to know where.”  
“Alright,” nodded Nicaise, already focused on that new mission.  
“And if you stumble upon one of those indians,” the Governor continued, throwing a shotgun at Nicaise, “Kill it.”  
Nicaise swallowed around the knot in his throat, but nodded once again, readying himself to follow Laurent wherever he was going.  
“Nicaise,” the Governor stopped him. “You don’t have very bright future as a sailor, and have no talent whatsoever for fighting. But I can’t take care of you. I will, as long as you prove yourself reliable.”  
“Of course, Governor,” Nicaise whispered finally, before running after Laurent.

“Kastor,” Nikandros called softly.  
“Nik ?”  
Kastor stood up from near the fire he was sat on, preparing his weapons like every night.  
“It’s… Damen,” Nik said after hesitating.  
Kastor’s eyes widen in worry.  
“What happened ? Is he alright ?”  
Nikandros clenched his jaw.  
“I think he’s… making a mistake. That he needs help. We should go search for him, but I can’t do it alone. You’re his brother, I know you want to protect him.”  
Kastor nodded, solemnly.  
“We’ll split up. Tell me everything you know.”

“Everything is trembling tonight !” said his mother when Damen reached the willow. “Tell me what’s happening.”  
Damen was trembling too.  
“The warriors are arrived, they’re all about to go to battle, I don’t know if I can stop them !”  
“Damen !” called Laurent, arriving from the other side.  
“Laurent,” said Damen, relieved. “You came.”  
Laurent took a hold of his hands.  
“Damen, listen to me. My men are going to attack your people soon, you have to warn them.”  
“No,” growled Damen. “I won’t let that happen, we can still avoid that war. You will come with me and talk to my father.”  
He tried to drag Laurent behind him, to no end.  
“It’s useless,” said Laurent sadly. “From now on words are no longer enough. I tried to talk to my men, but this mysterious country scares them, and they are blinded by fear. Damen, it’s to no end. When two parts want to fight, there is nothing to stop them.”  
“This is untrue,” growled the willow next to them. “There is always a better path, you just need to fight for it, be ready to take a risk and make the first difficult steps. This is your duty !”  
Laurent shook his head. “This is untrue,” growled the willow next to them. “There is always a better path, you just need to fight for it, be ready to take a risk and make the first difficult steps. This is your duty !”  
Laurent shook his head. “They would never listen to us…”  
“Young man, I didn’t say it’d be an easy path. But it is the only path where you can be together : when all fights will have stopped, and both parts live in harmony.”  
Laurent looked at Damen then, his eyes full of an internal fight.  
Finally, he smiled, and shook his head again.  
“Alright,” he said. “Let’s go talk to your father.”  
If nothing else was worth it, Damen’s smile at that would have been enough.  
The man was booming with happiness, and he rushed to take Laurent in his arms, his hands curled around Laurent’s waist.  
After a surprised moment of drawback, Laurent let himself melt into that embrace, and return it, his arms wrapping around Damen’s neck.  
Without much more of a warning, Damen closed the space between them, and pressed his lips to Laurent’s. Laurent pressed back, revealing in the feeling of Damen’s mouth on his, of his warm, soft lips caressing his own.  
As soon as Laurent started returning the kiss, it became more heated, their bodies pressing even closer together.  
Damen’s tongue went to brush on Laurent’s lip, and profited of the gasp it elicited to enter Laurent’s mouth. Laurent was breathless, their tongues brushing against each other, and nothing seemed to exist beyond that.  
Damen’s fingers were digging, hard, in his flesh, almost hurting. And still, he wanted to be closer.  
But, even faster than it started, the kiss ended, their bodies distant again, for there was now a screaming man running at them.  
Well, apparently mostly at Laurent.  
“Kastor stop !” he heard Damen shout at the man. His brother ?  
Right before he plunged and pushed Laurent to the ground with him.  
Laurent only had time to twist on his side before some sort of axe hit the ground where his head had been a second before.  
Laurent was unarmed, his opponent had a knife, and Laurent knew he couldn’t kill Damen’s brother, this was not looking good.  
Still shouting at Kastor to stop, Damen was pulling him away from Laurent, their powerful grips fighting one against the other. Most of Laurent’s attention was on the knife and avoid it to touch him or anyone, really.  
And then it all stopped at once.  
Laurent heard a gun shot, and saw the impact of it on Kastor’s body.  
“No ! Kastor ! No !” Damen screamed, but Kastor still fell under the impact.  
He caught his brother’s body as it hit the ground, and watched blood spilling from the small wound on his chest.  
“Kastor please, brother, I need you,” he kept talking and talking nonsense.  
Even when it was clear in Kastor’s eyes that he wasn’t hearing him anymore.  
“No, brother,” Damen sobbed against Kastor’s temple.  
“Nicaise, what have you done ?” he heard Laurent say near him.  
Blinded by pain and anger, Damen stood up and rushed to the man, the boy, who had just killed Kastor. Laurent stopped him mid course.  
“No, Damen stop he just wanted to protect…”  
“He killed my brother !” Damen screamed as his only response. “He killed him, like a coward ! He stole my brother’s life.”  
“Nicaise get out of here,” shouted Laurent to the scared boy. “Leave ! Now !”  
He was still restraining Damen from pursuing Nicaise. Only when he couldn’t see him anymore that Damen came back to his senses, and pain struck him even more.  
“No…” he moaned. “Not my brother…”  
“I’m sorry, Damen, I’m so sorry…” Laurent said softly.  
Before he could answer, Damen saw Laurent being restrained himself, by three of his people, likely alerted by the sound and the screams. Too late.  
And now he was going to lose Laurent too. “No…”  
Powerless, he watched them take Laurent away, and others take Kastor’s body on their shoulders, and bringing him back to the village too.  
“No,” he whispered one last time, before following them.  
How could everything crush down in such a short moment ?  
One breath he was kissing Laurent, the next his brother was dead, and Laurent was dragged down as a prisoner.  
“How could that happen ?” Theomedes asked, in the horror of seeing his first son’s dead body.  
“Damen was in the forest, Kastor went to look for him, and was attacked by this white man,” one of the man answered, holding Laurent down.  
Theomedes looked at him, his eyes murderous.  
“Your weapons are powerful,” he said bitterly. “But our anger weights more.”  
Addressing the crow, he announced.  
“At sunrise, tomorrow, this man will be the first to die !”  
“Father, please,” begged Damen from the edge of the crowd.  
Theomedes looked at him with even more anger.  
“I told you to stay inside the village. And you didn’t obey me. Do you realize how ashamed I am of you ?”  
“I thought I was helping my people !” Damen said, tears straining his voice.  
“Because of your recklessness, Kastor was killed ! Take him away,” he ordered the man holding Laurent down.  
Damen fell on his knees, helpless.  
It was only after everyone else left that Damen realized Nikandros was kneeled in front of him.  
“Kastor only wanted to protect me…” Damen whispered, tears running down his face.  
“Damen,” Nik said softly. “I… I asked Kastor to help me search for you, it’s my fault. I’m so sorry, but I was so afraid for you. I thought I was doing the right thing…”  
Damen shook his head slowly.  
“It had all happened because of me,” he said. “And now I will never see Laurent again…”  
Nikandros sighed, and took Damen’s hand, pulling him on his feet.  
“Come with me.”  
Nik guided him to the guarded tent holding Laurent prisoner.  
“Damen wants to face the white man who killed his brother,” he said firmly.  
The men looked at each other, but eventually conceded, opening the tent flap for Damen to enter. “Be quick.”  
Laurent was tied up to the central pillar, slumped down on himself. His eyes were closed. Had they beaten him ?  
Damen rushed down to his side, taking Laurent’s face gently between his fingers.  
“Damen,” breathed Laurent when he opened his eyes. “I’m so sorry for your brother.”  
Damen shook his head, smiling sadly.  
“It’s not your fault. It’s me who is sorry for…”  
Damen leaned forward, wrapping his arms around Laurent’s neck, their faces pressed together. Laurent shrugged.  
“For that ? Don’t worry about it, I survive everything. I always do.”  
Damen shook his head, tears swelling up in his eyes once again.  
“It’s all my fault. It would have been better if we had never met, none of this would have ever happened !”  
“Damen, look at me,” Laurent said softly.  
When he could look into his eyes, he continued :  
“It’s going to be alright, I don’t mind. I’d rather die tomorrow, than having lived a hundred years without having met you.”  
Damen nodded, and leaned in again, kissing Laurent, hard and urgent.  
“Damen,” came Nikandros’ muffled voice from outside.  
“I can’t leave you,” Damen whispered against Laurent’s lips.  
Laurent pressed their foreheads together.  
“It’s alright, wherever you go, I’ll always be with you.”  
Finally, Damen pulled himself away, his fingers lingering on Laurent’s face, his eyes scanning his features as if he was trying to burn them into his memory.  
finally, Damen kissed him one last time, before standing up again, and left the tent.  
Laurent was alone.  
Surrounded by the sounds of the warriors around him preparing for battle, and for his own execution…

Not knowing what to do, Damen turned to the only one who always understood him before, and went back to the willow to talk to his mother.  
“They’re going to kill him at sunrise, mother. And I can’t prevent it. I only made everything worse with my choices…”  
“You have to stop them, it’s the path your dream had predicted for you, child !”  
“I can’t, mother ! There is nothing left I can do to stop anything from happening, now… That path only lead to death, and now I’m alone…”  
He pulled at the red feather around his neck, only realizing then how much he had wanted that alliance with Laurent…  
He pulled too hard and the feather fell from the loosened knot.  
Before he could manage to grasp it, the wind stole it from him, and carried it away.  
“Listen to the spirits, my son. They are there to guide you !”  
“Does that mean I have to follow it ?”  
“The wind will guide you, now choose your path !”  
Taking a deep breath, Damen hardened his resolution.  
His eyes fixed on the red feather, he started to run.

Laurent was half carried, half dragged toward the place of his execution, the place where both sides would fight, and no amount of struggle and fighting the grip did anything. He couldn’t escape his own fate. But he meant what he had said to Damen the night before.  
He would rather die there and then than go back to a life without his love…  
Pushed in between two rows of archers, he was guided to a big stone in the middle of a plane field. Very dramatic. If he wasn’t meant to die there, he’d approve completely.  
Roughly, he was thrown on his knees, his face pressed against the flat surface of the stone.  
From the other side of the field, he could see his men arrive, ready for battle.  
He’d die knowing his execution would be the catalyst for that war he had hoped to prevent…  
When he saw the shadow of the sacrificial weapon raised above his head, he closed his eyes, and tried to calm his mind. Maybe that way his mind and soul would find his loved ones more easily…  
“No !” someone shouted next to him. Damen.  
A hard body threw itself on top of him, shielding him from the fatal blow.  
Laurent breathed in Damen’s scent, trying not to show how relieved he was of feeling Damen’s skin against his.  
“If you want to kill him, father, you’ll need to kill me first,” Damen said, clear and loud.  
“My son, get away from here,” Theomedes boomed, his voice trembling with anger.  
“I refuse !” Damen answered. “He’s the one I love.”  
Laurent heard the gasps all around them, as if both armies were holding their breath in surprise.  
“Look around you, this is where hate and violence’s path is leading you all ! This is the path I choose to follow, now it’s your turn to choose.”  
Then it was Laurent who held his breath. Was a father’s love enough to save him, to save everyone.  
Then he felt the wind, blowing fast over them.  
A moment after, the loud noise of the stone weapon falling on the stone.  
“My son is showing a wisdom beyond his years. We are all blinded by the anger in our hearts, and he’s the only one talking about courage and brotherhood. We should all learn from that mistake. From now on, if lives have to be taken, it won’t start with me.”  
After a pause, Theomedes ordered “Free him.” And a man came forward to cut down his restraints.  
Them gone, Laurent found that he could breath again, and he stood, pressing himself against Damen, his arms wrapped around the large chest. Damen was holding him too, even tighter.  
“I told you,” Laurent whispered. “I survive everything.”  
He heard a commotion from the other side of the field, and saw his uncle take a gun from Orlant’s hands, before aiming in their direction.  
He was going to shoot Damen’s father.  
In a split second, Laurent unwrapped himself from Damen’s arms and ran to push the chief down.  
A second too late to avoid being hit himself, sadly.  
He felt the pain before fully registering the sound, an explosion tearing his flesh apart.  
Immediately, Damen was above him, around him, holding him tight against his warm chest.  
“It’s going to be alright,” Laurent whispered soothingly.

“How bad is it, Paschal ?” Laurent asked the carpenter an hour later, remotely safe under a tent.  
Paschal shook his head, as if he was cursing internally.  
“The bullet exploded by the time it hit you. There are fragments of it everywhere in your liver and other organs too. Even if I remove the ones that cause the bleeding immediately, the lead would poison you in no time, or you’d get an infection, because those need surgery. Surgery I can’t perform in a wet tent in the middle of a pathetic excuse of a colony. We… we need to go back in England if you want any chance to survive.”  
Laurent swallowed around the sudden ball in his throat. That was not exactly the answer he had expected. But at least it was honest.  
“I see,” he said after a moment. “Well, then I suppose I’ll ask you to remove what you can while we’re here before starting the journey back, would you ?”  
His expression hardened, Paschal nodded his affirmation once, and got to work.

“Please Nicaise, wait just a little more. There will still be waves then,” Laurent said with a soft smile. “He said he’d come.”  
Nicaise nodded, stepping away from Laurent’s cot to give him some air.  
“Jord, that fragile peace holds on you now,” he told his Second. “You’re at the head of that brand new colony, and you need to preserve the status quo, even when more white men come in. You need to keep them from decimating each other. This is really important, promise me you will.”  
Jord nodded. “I promise,” he said, and his serious expression meant that at least he’d give it a real effort. It would have to be enough.  
“Oh, look, there he is,” Nicaise said in a breath.  
So Laurent looked, and there he was. Damen, emerging from the fog like the god he had to be. He couldn’t help the smile that spread on his face at the sight.  
After him came people from his tribe, bearing food and supplies, what would make the difference between life and death for the ones that would stay there.  
They didn’t even needed to ask. Damen knew, and wordlessly gifted everyone with what they needed. He even gave his love to Laurent, who was sure he never deserved it…  
Kneeling next to him, Damen smiled, and brushed a strand of hair away from Laurent’s eye.  
“I brought you this,” he said a little awkwardly, pulling out a little pouch from his belt.  
“It’s bark from the willow. My mother said it’ll help with the pain.”  
Laurent smiled.  
“I wouldn’t doubt her on that. But tell her I’d survive anything. I always do.”  
Damen smiled too.  
“You do. You really did survive your own execution after all.”  
I will probably not survive this, Laurent didn’t say.  
“Would you… come with me ?” he asked quietly.  
He hated himself the moment the words had left his mouth. It was nothing but the selfish desire to not die alone. He couldn’t force that onto Damen. Anything, really.  
“To see London ?” Damen asked.  
Laurent only smiled sadly. Damen shook his head, looking back at his father.  
“My people need me, I have to stay.”  
Laurent smiled.  
“Of course. I… I will stay too.”  
Damen took Laurent’s head into his hands.  
“Please, no, you need to live. You need to go back home and heal, and live.”  
Laurent almost cried, right there and then, but he held back the tears.  
“I can’t leave you…”  
“You won’t,” said Damen, in his assured voice that knew no lies. “No matter where you and I are, I will always be with you. Here,” he added, his hand hovering over Laurent’s heart.  
“You’re right,” Laurent whispered with his best fake smile.  
The least he owed Damen was hope.  
“I’ll come back,” Laurent said. “I’ll go back and get that bullet removed, and heal, and I’ll come back. A few seasons. A year tops. I’ll come back for you. I promise.”  
Laurent would give anything to be able to hold that promise. But he was probably lying.  
“I’ll wait for you,” whispered Damen, his own promise.  
Leaning down, Damen closed the space between them, rapturing Laurent’s lips in a searing kiss. It tasted bitter, and like tears.  
There was a little bit of hope too.  
But it was their last chance to kiss and they both knew it.  
When Damen pulled away, he bit down his lower lip, as if to make Laurent’s taste last a little longer.  
“Let’s go,” Nicaise said, taking one end of Laurent’s cot with another man, guiding them to the boat, and then to the ship taking Laurent aways from his home.  
Frozen in pain, Damen couldn’t move. He could only watch as they took away the man he loved. He felt his father’s hand light on his shoulder after a moment. A weak effort to comfort him. As soon as the wind caught up in their odd clouds, Damen regretted it.  
He started running, faster faster, fast enough to caught up with the wood prison taking Laurent away from him.  
If he could run fast enough, he could return to that shore and prevent Laurent from leaving. He just needed to run faster.  
But in the end it still wasn’t fast enough. When he caught sight of the ship again, from the high edge of a cliff, it was far, on his way to cross the ocean to all those things Damen didn’t know about. To an uncertain future held together by a string of hope.  
All Damen could do was beg the wind to send them far away. The sooner he arrived to London, the sooner he’d come back.

So Damen waited.  
He did everything his people needed. He learned how to be the person they needed him to become, learned how to protect the fragile truce with the white men, and worked hard every day. He wanted Laurent to be proud of what he accomplished while he was away.  
Everyday, at sunrise, he sat on the edge of his cliff, and watched the sun illuminate the world once again, hoping he’d see Laurent’s strange clouds.  
He didn’t come back in the first year.  
It had been a complex wound, it required complex healing. He just needed more time to be able to come back.  
But he would. He had promised.  
He didn’t come back the second year either, but still Damen waited every morning on the edge of his cliff.  
He didn’t come back the third and fourth years either, as his father was asking him again to take a wife.  
He didn’t come back the fifth year, but Damen couldn’t accept the idea that he wouldn’t come back at all.  
Laurent had promised.  
“You need to let it go,” Nikandros told him one morning, sat next to him on the cliff. “He is not coming back. You need to live, you can’t wait for him forever.”  
“He promised, Nik. He wouldn’t have lied to me,” Damen said through tears.  
Nikandros held him close to his chest.  
“Maybe it was not his choice to make, as simple as that,” he whispered in Damen’s hair.  
“You’re my brother, my best friend. I want you to live again.”  
Damen shook his head, wiping away his tears.  
“I’ll just wait a little longer,” he said simply.  
Laurent never came back.

Epilogue :

Nicaise was shaking him awake, violently. When Laurent opened his eyes he saw the tears in Nicaise’s.  
“You weren’t breathing,” said Nicaise, again and again.  
Laurent put his hand on Nicaise’s arm to gently stop him.  
“Well I’m breathing now, so stop shaking me,” he said simply.  
He moved to sit down, and winced at the pain. Nicaise rushed forward to help him, his brows furrowed in worry.  
Laurent chuckled, but it stopped quickly as it woke up even more pain.  
“Don’t make that face, it’s going to be alright,” he said, cupping Nicaise’s face for a brief moment.  
He had barely finished talking that his body was folded in half from a vicious cough.  
“I need air,” he hissed the moment he could talk again. “Help me go on the deck, Nicaise.”  
Nicaise nodded and helped him stand up, wrapping Laurent’s arm around his shoulders, and supporting him with his own arm wrapped around Laurent’s waist.  
It was barely enough, Laurent was so weak and tired…  
The journey to the edge of the deck, with all its stairs and on unsteady feet, was long and painful. But they made it, Nicaise firmly holding Laurent until he fell against the wood, supported by the sure hardness behind his back.  
There was air, and he could see the stars. He wondered when exactly night had fallen, how long he really spent in that cabin. They were around a month in the journey back to England, there was still a long way to go.  
His breathing heavy with the exercise, Nicaise dropped himself next to Laurent, gazing at the stars with him.  
“You don’t need to worry that much, you know ?” Laurent said with a little smile. “Everything’s going to be alright. You don’t need me, the same way you didn’t need my uncle. You’re going to have a long, rich and happy life. You’re going to be free. You don’t need to worry about me.”  
With another sad smile, he nudged Nicaise’s shoulder with his own.  
“Anyhow, I would probably have been executed if I made it to England.”  
Nicaise kept his gaze straight ahead, refusing to look at him.  
“I don’t want you to die,” he whispered.  
Laurent shook his head. “You just don’t want to be alone.”  
Nicaise didn’t answer, still refusing to look at him.  
Laurent sighed and looked back at the sky.  
He was exactly where he wanted to be. Free, in the open air, in a fragile walnut shell over the wide ocean. Well, it wasn’t completely true. Where he really wanted to be was with Damen. But here ? It was a close second. It would have to do.  
“Nicaise ?” he asked slowly.  
Nicaise hummed questioningly.  
“Do you think he is waiting for me ?”  
Even to himself, his voice sounded small and vulnerable.  
This time, Nicaise finally looked him in the eyes, his own wide in surprise.  
“Yes,” he said after a moment. “I think he is waiting for you.”  
Laurent hummed too, and smiled. That was a nice thought.  
Tired, he let his head fall on Nicaise’s shoulder.  
“A shame I won’t come back…” he whispered as his eyes closed themselves.  
He felt himself stop breathing, slowly, inexorably.  
Distantly, he wondered if Nicaise would cry.  
But then he only thought about Damen. Waiting for him to come back.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah I made myself cry again...
> 
> Fanart by the amazing Owen @leo-of-belgium on tumblr and twitter, my wonderful friend who somehow accepts to make art for my fics for free XD  
> Love you, Nic.


End file.
